An introduction to puppetry for the students at the Comédie de Reims!

Alongside Temps d’M, the Centre offered a training module entitled ‘Gestes à jouer’ to pupils in the drama class at the Comédie de Reims – National Drama Centre, led by the actress, puppeteer, director and teacher Alexandra Vuillet, supported by the choreographer Anne-Catherine Nicoladzé and the actor and puppeteer Samuel Beck.

A period of work that was essential for Alexandra Vuillet, enabling her to put her research into the potential contributions of the puppetry arts to theatre actor training to the test.

At the crossroads of theatre and puppetry, this project aims to incorporate certain fundamental aspects of the puppeteer-actor’s craft into the training of actors in order to respond to developments in contemporary playwriting. The contributions of puppetry enable us to address major issues: ecological, political, aesthetic, philosophical, theatrical and multidisciplinary.
The aim is to identify the skills that can be transferred to actors’ training and to design appropriate modules. At the same time, the project seeks to redefine the scope of the puppetry arts, which are now bolstered by their institutional recognition (notably through the CNMa).

Trained at the conservatory in theatre and puppetry with Emilie Valantin (Théâtre du Fust) and Alain Recoing (Théâtre aux Mains Nues), Alexandra Vuillet co-founded the Compagnie Arnica, with which she collaborated until 2010. Holder of a State Diploma in theatre teaching, she taught regularly from 2011 to 2021 at conservatories in Paris and to students at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts de la Marionnette.

She created MuPPet QuEEn and Le Lab to develop her research and creative activities.

She collaborates with other artists either as an assistant or director, or as a puppeteer for puppet theatre with the Théâtre de Romette, Cie Boom, Les bas-bleus, AMK, La Magouille, L’arpenteuse cie, Chiendent Théâtre for opera with La Co[oépra]tive, or for other artists with Colombian puppeteer Hector Loboguerrero Gongora for the Théâtre des Marionnettes de Genève, and with choreographers Lila Deridj and Anne-Catherine Nicoladzé.